The genealogical analysis of the implementation of inclusive education in Kwazulu-Natal full-service schools

Abstract

The implementation of inclusive education is stalling in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province. Full-service schools do not have capacity to implement the inclusive education policy, despite the commitment by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to support them. Educators are also not coping with the demands of teaching in inclusive classes; since learners with barriers to learning require specialised support. Using genealogy as the conceptual framework, the study seeks to investigate the historical bearing of special needs education on the emergence of inclusive education. In this context, genealogy denounces inclusive education as the continuity of the history of special needs education, since history falsely portrays the birth of new phenomena as the final stage of investigation. The implementation process in full-service schools is therefore analysed, through exposing the errors, miscalculations and deviations in the implementation process and, uncovering the challenges that impact the implementation process. A qualitative approach was employed to elicit the voice of the participants. It involved conducting semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussions and observations in four purposely selected full-service schools. The findings revealed that the perceived universality of an inclusive education system has been compromised by the KZN-DoE’s failure to give adequate financial and material support to full-service schools. This failure manifested itself in the lack of adequate infrastructural development, inadequate funding, lack of training and development of educators and failure to effectively engage parents in their children’s education. The unethical behaviour of learners with disabilities towards the ordinary ones, as well as their inability to self-transform and attain self-actualisation exacerbate social exclusion, as well as the failure of inclusive education to be implemented. It is therefore recommended that the KZN-DoE plays a meaningful supportive role as described in the inclusive education policy and use its power and knowledge to produce individuals and systems that could enable the effective implementation of inclusive education. Further research needs to be conducted on how ethics and aesthetics of existence can influence social inclusion in full-service schools and how power and knowledge can be used to positively influence inclusive education.